It seems that Devin is taking over my blog. He has started experimenting with his cake making and this week he came up with the cakes above. He made a batch of chocolate and a batch of vanilla cupcakes. He used my recipe for the chocolate ones but substituted cocoa powder for Cadbury’s drinking chocolate (because he prefers milk chocolate). The result was a much lighter, terrifically moreish cake. He then decided that pink butter icing and sprinkles were the way to go. I think he made a wonderful job. I, on the other hand, prefer my usual gooey chocolate icing so made some of that for the remaining 12 cakes.
I think I’ll let him flick through my various recipe books to come up with something to bake next weekend.
In much better news…all my studying is done for the year. Well, that is if I pass everything. I’m just happy that over the past 4 weeks I have managed to get all my assignments in by the deadlines. Now I get my life back. It feels so good to be able to pick up a book and read for enjoyment…or to sit and watch a film with the kids without having to multi-task by typing at the same time.
Yesterday I received my swap parcel from the Alice in Wonderland swap. Tomorrow I shall post mine. There will be a blog post during the week sometime.
In Scotland we have 2 days for half term. 2 days! So far today I have taken my car to the garage to have the exhaust fixed, taken Devin to get his hair cut…and have done very little else. I’m putting off finishing my Forest School portfolio because I just can’t get into it. I’m going to end up working late tonight. However, by the end of the week it will be finished and I can stop moaning about all the studying I have to do.
I spent most of this weekend in the kitchen. On Saturday I friend came round for dinner so I made a yummy Paella followed by a low fat Oreo Cheesecake. Last night I had intended to order a chinese but I found a recipe for a kind of Sloppy Joe with Garlic Bread on the Good Food website and decided to give that a go instead. Much as I loved the flavour, it was just too much meat. Hubby and I decided that if we were to make it again we’d substitute half of the minced beef for vegetables.
Other than that I have been spending my time with the kids, so I shall leave you with a couple of close ups.
Happy New Year folks. One of my “resolutions” this year is to make more food from scratch (although if today’s Boston Cream Pie disaster, which I will blog about in all its messy glory later, is anything to go by I should just give up). Another one of my resolutions is, as always, to lose weight. As a swan song to my calorific ways I’ll share this recipe with you:
In this cold weather I am craving comfort food. Macaroni Cheese is not a dish I’ve ever loved, but I’ve been getting cravings for it of late. So, I broke out my trusty Nigella recipe book and off I went. These recipe is calorie-laden and wonderfully rich as a result. I overcooked it very slightly so the sauce wasn’t as runny as I’d of liked. I also topped it with crushed up crisps because I like a crunchy, crispy topping. The kids wolfed it down as well so I’d say it was a success all round.
250g Macaroni
250g Cheese (I used a mixture of cheddars)
250ml evaporated milk
salt and pepper
2 eggs
grating of fresh nutmeg
- Cook macaroni according to packet instructions.
- Blitz other ingredients together (or if you grate the cheese first you can just mix them by hand).
- Pour cheese sauce over macaroni and stir well before transferring into oven proof dish.
- Cook in a hot oven (220c) for 10-15 minutes.
Another recipe from the super fattening book of Nigella. I’m not usually attracted to recipes that don’t involve chocolate but I’ve signed up to do a swap via Vonnie’s blog and I figured I may have to bake something that doesn’t involve chocolate. This one had cherries (one of my favourites) and bananas (which I had loads of in the house) in it so I thought I’d give it a go. As it turns out, it’s rather yummy. Nigella claims that these are cupcakes but they are far more muffin like, in my opinion. The recipe makes 12.
125g unsalted butter 1/2 tsp baking powder
200g caster sugar 300g plain flour
1 tsp vanilla extract 40g dried cherries, chopped
3 ripe bananas 50g white chocolate, chopped
4 tbsp sour cream
2 large eggs
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- Preheat oven to 180c.
- Melt butter in a saucepan, take off the heat and mix in vanilla, sugar and bananas (mashing everything up with a fork).
- Stir in sour cream and eggs and then beat until mixed properly.
- Add the bicarb and baking powder, mixing well before stirring in flour, cherries and chocolate.
- Split between 12 muffin cases and bake for 20 minutes, or until golden and springy on top.
So this week I have:
- Completed my final essay for uni (this term). I’m not overly happy with it as I know with more time and effort (and less in the way of child related interruptions) I could have done a lot better. However, I’m hoping it will pass. Despite the stress, I really enjoyed doing it.
- Been to see Take That with the lovely Emma, Eileen and Kate.
- Take the children (along with Emma and my husband) to the Gala day at the local park.
- Learnt how to tie some new knots at Forest School.
- Written the final set of school reports for the year.
It’s been a hectic year but it’s finally coming to a close (I’m a teacher, I work in academic years). With Emma popping over today I decided to use my new found time to do a bit of baking. I didn’t have a lot in so whipped up a batch of chocolate cupcakes. The recipe is exactly the same as that for the chocolate cake a couple of posts below. Instead of baking in a cake tin, I split the mixture between 12 muffin cases and baked in a preheated oven (170c) for 18 minutes. When they had cooled, I added the icing and a giant chocolate button, for decoration.
They were yummy and went down so well that husband, guest and I had 2 each. Hopefully with the holidays coming up I’ll be able to take on the projects which have been neglected due to work.
I’ve been flicking through Nigella’s book (again) and when Devin saw the picture of pancakes he decided that they were what he wanted for dinner.
Ingredients
225g plain flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon sugar
2 eggs, beaten
30g butter, melted and then cooled
300ml milk
I put all the dry ingredients into a bowl and made a well in the centre. I then poured the milk, egg and butter into the well and mixed them together. I left the mix for about 20 minutes and then heated up the frying pan before melting a wee bit of butter in it. I poured a little mixture in the centre of the pan, waited until it started to bubble and flipped the pancake over. It took about 30 seconds for the other side to cook after that. I think I got about 8 or 9 pancakes out of this mixture, which we ate warm, smothered in maple syrup.
Not only was this a tasty, easy to make recipe but I loved the fact that the kids sat with me in the kitchen, ready to grab hot pancakes as they came out of the pan.
So, as well as making a batch of caramel shortcake this evening, I decided to attempt my first ever loaf cake. I love anything with cherries and almonds in it so went for Nigella Lawson’s Cherry-Almond Loaf cake. I found this really easy to make, although I destroyed my kitchen in the process (there is butter where no person should find butter). I can’t tell you how it tastes because Nigella’s recipes don’t exactly suit a Weight Watchers diet but at least it looks good.
Ingredients
200g glace cherries
250g self raising flour
225g butter, softened
175g caster sugar
3 large eggs, beaten
2-3 drops almond essence
100g ground almonds
6 tablespoons milk
- Preheat the oven to 170°c. Halve the cherries, wash them, pat them dry and toss them in flour.
- Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Gradually add the beaten egg and almond essence.
- Gently fold in flour and ground almonds.
- Fold in cherries and then the milk.
- Spoon mixture into loaf tin and bake for 45-60 mins (I found I needed to add an extra 10 minutes).
- Cool cake on a wire rack
…an essay.
For the past 6 months or so I have been working on the SEBD (social, emotional and behavioural difficulties) 2 module of my postgrad. All should be well, after all this is the sector I work in and therefore have much knowledge of. Not so. The essay is more than a month overdue and although my tutor doesn’t seem to have a problem with it I really do. I have another essay on Modern Educational Thought due in on 18th June so I need to get this one out of the way.
So today will be spent cutting, pasting, scraping and re-doing all the components of said 3,500 word essay while attempting to entertain a 2 year old and a 5 year old. It’s a craft of sorts, although I’ll not bore you with pictorial evidence of the finished article.
